Los alumnos ante el dictado musical. Las TIC como aliadas para mejorar las experiencias

Music dictation, listening and transcribing musical excerpts, has become a considerably frequent activity in the music classroom, and especially so in the teaching of solfege and music theory in conservatoires and music schools. It is interesting to note that music dictation is an activity often accompanied by negative connotations and the dislike of students. This was the starting point of our research, which intends to draw relevant conclusions on students’ experience regarding this activity, from a study where a significant number of pupils from Madrid’s professional conservatoires took part. Data was collected using questionnaires containing open and closed questions. Results show that students perceive the
importance given to auditory training in the music classroom, but they also admit that they experience anxiety and other unpleasant emotions when they carry out these tasks. Our aim should be to ensure that negative attitudes and emotions give way to enjoyment and the pleasure of listening, something which will for sure improve learning outcomes. We consider that the use of ICT when working on music dictation can be a strategy to foster motivation in students and to enable them to experiment greater joy during their learning process. In this paper we start by mentioning some
theories regarding hearing and music dictation, before giving details on the research methods used and the results we obtained. We then
analyse the advantages of a series of tools that can be used in listening and music dictation tasks.